Friday 16 September 2011

One thing leads to another - as they say

So posts Richard North, EU Referendum, referring to an article in the Guardian. To which can be added this article that appeared by Steffan Nilsson writing about the European Energy Commission (EEC) - now that abbreviation rings a bell somewhere.......... That energy companies could well become even more unpopular is underlined by Nilsson's comments that he intends working towards and calling for yet more EUEU governance in the field of energy.

Nilsson believes that there appears to be a consensus among civil society on a need for collective political action. According to Wikipedia:
"Civil society is composed of the totality of voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state (regardless of that state's political system), the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal organizations like the mafia. Together, state, market, civil society constitute the entirety of a society, and the relations between these components determine the character of a society and its structure.".
I was thinking of going into Wiki, deleting 'private' and substituting the letters 'EU' in place of 'mafia', but again I digress....

If state, market and civil society constitute the entirety of a society and the relations between these components determine the character of a society and its structure then we, the people, are indeed being 'conditioned' and 'ordered'; in other words being 'herded' like cattle. Methinks then that it is about time a few of us 'milch-cows' started acting awkwardly - we may even get a mention in Mark Wadsworth's 'cow-attack' series.

Just a thought.............

2 comments:

outsider said...

This definition of civil society seems to be what Mrs Thatcher meant when she said there was no such thing as society...ie a constantly networking, self-regarding elite that has little to do with the views of the ordinary folk they claim to represent.
It is essential to national life but too many of the good people who enter civil society with the best of intentions end up being morally corrupted or self-deluded.

WitteringsfromWitney said...

outsider: I don't believe a networking self-regarding elite is essential to society or a benefit to society. Agree with your last bit about good intentions and corrupting influence.

I am a firm believer in the Swiss model of government - little of it and the people are in control, ultimately. We may be a far larger country than Switzerland, but that system would work here.